Baileys and Wonderbra – more in common than meets the eye

 

I was driving into town a couple of weekends ago. As I hit the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road a huge billboard on the side of a building struck me. It was for the new Bailey’s bottle. I wanted to take a picture but a run of green traffic lights – oh the irony – put a stop to that.  I saw the same hoarding near Shepherd’s Bush Green on the way home. The same run of green lights.

Image taken from Daily Mail website

So what made me really want to take a picture? The caption, ‘Hello Gorgeous. Welcome to the new Baileys’ bottle’ clearly echoed the iconic ‘Hello Boys’ Wonderbra ad. But it was also the fact that a bottle redesign was being celebrated in such a high profile way. I know it’s the first time the bottle has changed since 1974, so I guess it’s a big deal, at least to those of us in the industry. But would consumers, the target of the outdoor campaign that was almost guerrilla in its execution really care that much? Nor was there any call to action that I saw as I was driving past. The new, sexy bottle was clearly the hero of the campaign and that clearly constituted enough of a message for those who had planned it.

Did I like it? As someone in the industry who interacts with businesses across the marcoms landscape, including media planning and buying, packaging design and experiential agencies, yes, very much. Would consumers notice it and/or care very much? I don’t really know.

But do you know what’s really frustrating? Usually you can find most things with a quick Google search. Yet in this case I’ve not been able to find a single image or reference to this campaign. If I’d wanted shots of the celeb-attended launch party I’d have had no such problem. Clearly news of the bottle redesign is everywhere, but there’s nothing on the outdoor campaign. Not even a solitary blogger or flickr-user seems to have noticed it. How different from my experience a couple of days ago when I passed in front of the Anya Hindmarch shop near Victoria in a taxi going too fast for me to take a shot of her wonderful Maggie-inspired window. A Google image search threw up loads of options for me to choose from.  Come on Bailey’s team. A bit more joined up thinking wouldn’t have gone amiss.